BIOGRAPHER FASCINATED BY NELSON ROCKEFELLER

MARK SOMMER Executive Features Editor

Nelson Rockefeller seldom did anything on a small scale. Perhaps that's why
biographer Cary Reich needed 769 pages to tell his story in last year's
National Book Award finalist, ``The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to
Conquer'' (Doubleday).

Actually, it's only part of the story, since the book leaves off with
Rockefeller being elected the Republican governor of New York in 1958 at the
age of 50. The concluding volume, which will follow Rockefeller until his
death in 1979, isn't expected to reach bookstores until 1999.

Judging by the reviews the first book has garnered, it may be well worth
the wait. Publisher's Weekly proclaimed Reich's book the ``definitive
portrait'' of Rockefeller, and the New York Times Book Review gushed: ``the
portrait of Nelson Rockefeller is as rich and nuanced as we will ever have.''

Reich will discuss the project that has absorbed him for more than nine
years when he speaks on ``The Art of Political Biography'' at the University
at Albany on Thursday, Nov. 6. His appearance will be a highlight of the New
York State Writers Institute's Visiting Writers Series that begins Tuesday and
runs until Dec. 15. A film series will run concurrently.

The 49-year-old Reich, who grew up in Brooklyn,
graduated from Brooklyn College and attended graduate school at Northwestern
University, remembers being drawn to New York state politics from an early
age. He was particularly fascinated by the man who would occupy the governor's
chair from 1959 to 1973, and as the son of John Rockefeller Jr., and grandson
of John D. Rockefeller, extend a family name synonymous with unbridled
American wealth and power.

``Nelson Rockefeller was the most commanding figure of all the players
then. He was also someone who was larger than life in many ways, in his
successes, his aspirations and his failures,'' Reich said in a recent
interview from his home in New York City.

``This was a man who had everything going for him, someone who by many
people's reckoning was the best-equipped man of his generation to become
president, and yet never was.''

Reich was no neophyte to political biographies when deciding to undertake
what he hoped would be the definitive Rockefeller biography. A former
executive editor for Institutional Investor, he had authored ``Financier,''
about Andre Meyer, and chronicled others among the rich and famous in magazine
profiles.

As he immersed himself in Rockefeller's past, Reich says what surprised him
most were Rockefeller's prodigious accomplishments before serving as governor
of New York. Among them: overseeing the construction of Rockefeller Center in
Manhattan; helping to found New York's Museum of Modern Art and guide its
affairs for decades; all-but-running Latin America while serving in the State
Department under Democrat FDR during World War II; having a hand in rewriting
the United Nations charter; and designing the first government health care
system under Republican Eisenhower.

Another surprise for Reich was his discovery that Rockefeller was a
``hardline, consummate Cold Warrior,'' a characterization that ran counter to
what he had presumed about him.

``He was obsessed with communists and all that entailed. He was the guy who
really pushed fallout shelters on us in the late '50s and '60s, because he was
convinced we could win a nuclear war if we all hid underground for 90 days,''
Reich said. ``The great, gregarious Rocky had close to a paranoid view of
communism. I don't think Ronald Reagan in his most strident moments could have
matched what Nelson Rockefeller thought.'' Liberal irony All the more
ironic, then, for how Rockefeller has come to personify GOP liberalism.
Eighteen years since his death, the term ``Rockefeller Republican'' has become
a pejorative term for many in the party, a political slur that was hurled at
retired Gen. Colin Powell in 1995 by opponents to thwart his potential run for
the presidency.

``Rockefeller symbolized the liberal wing of his party, and was the last
great liberal Republican,'' said Reich. ``He represents the last gasp of
liberalism -- the `we'll throw money at a problem and solve it.' He was the
last extension of FDR's New Deal philosophy. After Rockefeller, no politician
would venture on the scene talking about big projects and big money to solve
problems. In that sense, when you tell the Nelson Rockefeller story, you also
tell the story of what happened to liberal Republicanism.''

Reich says Rockefeller relished his role as governor of New York, a subject
he will be talking about in his next book.

``He enjoyed being governor, no question he loved that role. He loved doing
things, and in a sense viewed the state as a great playground, a great place
to solve problems. He believed there was nothing that couldn't be solved with
enough brains and money, and the state of New York became a launching pad for
that philosophy.'' Monument to self So did Albany, and in particular, the
Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza.

``The plaza had a grandiosity to it. It was Nelson Rockefeller's great
monument to the state, but also undoubtedly to himself. He was basically the
supervising architect for the plaza. What you see there is Nelson Rockefeller,
for better or worse. There is no question the guy took enormous delight in the
whole thing.''

Reich said the then-governor didn't understand the criticism the
controversial remake of downtown Albany provoked in many quarters. Nor has the
plaza lived up to what Rockefeller envisioned, the author said.

``I don't think Nelson would have imagined it would be this place where
office workers would scoot around underground and go home. You can view the
mall as the biggest fallout shelter in the world,'' he joked.

It's well known that Rockefeller deeply aspired to the presidency, having
failed to gain his party's nomination, first in 1964 and again in 1968. He
served as vice president in 1974 under Gerald Ford, but by then his political
star seemed to have already set. Nonetheless, Reich believes Rockefeller left
behind few political regrets.

``He savored his life in politics and felt fulfilled on many levels. He
lived and enjoyed life to the fullest, squeezing every bit of joy out of life
that he could,'' said Reich.

When asked if he thinks he would have liked Rockefeller had he known him,
Reich said it's a question he has asked himself a number of times. The answer,
he says, is certainly yes.

``There are times, I know, when I wouldn't have liked him, times he could
be cold or act like a patrician. But fundamentally, I would have liked him,
because that sparkle in his eye would probably have pulled me in. I think I
would have been seduced by him like so many were. To that extent, I'm probably
better off having not met him, since as a biographer I would probably be less
objective than I am now.''

Later this fall, there will be a display of Andy Warhol's portrait of
Nelson Rockefeller in the Erastus Corning Tower of the Empire State Plaza.